The Anderson Report

CHAPTER 19
THE HEALING CLAIMS OF SCIENTOLOGY

A very important phase of the Inquiry was whether scientology -

(a) claimed to heal or cure ills or ailments,

(b) practised the healing or curing of ills or ailments.

Williams and other executive scientologists from time to time asserted in evidence that scientology neither claimed to cure nor practised curing, that the practising of scientology to cure any ailment was forbidden and that auditors would be decertificated if they were found doing so or promising to cure any ailment. It was said that the curing of ailments had been a dianetic activity and that, because of troubles associated with non-qualified persons purporting to cure ailments, dianetics was put aside and scientology developed in such a way that specifically no claim was made to heal.

Certain bulletins and other documents emanating from Hubbard likewise state that the curing of ailments is not the role of scientology, but these are quite at variance with many other bulletins and similar publications, which describe scientology in terms which are consistent only with a claim that scientology can and does effect cures of the most remarkable kind.

The official attitude advanced at the Inquiry that scientology did not claim to heal was, and is, only a camouflage. The real intention of scientology is to inculcate in the minds of anyone who becomes interested in it the impression or belief that, as well as being a panacea for all problems, worries and aberrations, it is a gateway to sure cures for a great variety of mental and physical ills. And it is at the vary basis of scientology teaching that mental and physical well-being is assured to those wh
o have sufficient scientology processing.

A fundamental principle of scientology is that a rehabilitated thetan is capable of caring for the body and the mind of the human being which it possesses and, therefore, if the thetan is rehabilitated and all its abilities are restored, it will be able to cure the ills of the body and mind. The only way to rehabilitate a thetan is said to be by scientology processing.

The belief that scientology is a cure for many illnesses, both mental and physical, is propagated by Hubbard consistently and deliberately. No opportunity is missed of claiming for scientology the credit of a cure, and in his books and other writings repeated claims are made and cases quoted of alleged cures, many of them said to be miraculous.

Campaigns are planned for enticing people into scientology because of what it offers in the way of alleviation and cure of illnesses. From time to time there is a protest by Hubbard and the HASI that they are not concerned with cures of bodily ills, and that their only goal is to make the able more able. But these protestations are hollow-sounding in the light of the calculated deception which is consistently practised in the drive for more and still more adherents to scientology. Sometimes the attitude adopted is, in effect, "We don't claim to cure, curing is not our concern. Of course, if you look at our record, look at the miraculous cures we have effected, look what dianetics, which is a branch of scientology, can do and has done, you will see that scientology does cure; but we don't claim to cure". This is a cunning and effective pose, its effectiveness being best judged by the great number of ardent scientologists who firmly believe, as their evidence before the Board and a perusal of their files show, that scientology possesses remarkable curative powers, and that in many cases they are "in scientology" partly at least because of such beliefs.

Mindful of this technique, one well understands why Hubbard insists that his million copy best-seller, Dianetics: MSMH, is essential reading at all stages of scientology study, even though the book was written in 1950, before scientology was founded, and notwithstanding that dianetics was said by witnesses not now to be practised.

The claims for dianetics, as appearing on the dustcover of Dianetics: MSMH and in the text, include assertions that cases of "Psychosomatic ills such as arthritis, migraine, ulcers, allergies, asthma, coronary difficulties (psychosomatic - about one-third of all heart trouble cases), tendonitis, bursitis, paralysis (hysterical), eye trouble (non-pathological) have all responded .... without failure"; in fact, the claim made is that with the techniques mentioned in Dianetics: MSMH, "The psychiatrist, psycho-analyst and intelligent layman can successfully and invariably treat all psychosomatic ills and inorganic aberrations," and that it can cure 70 per cent. of all man's illnesses and aberrations.

In various places Hubbard has written to the effect that arthritis, eye conditions, heart conditions, cancer, all psychosomatic illnesses, morning sickness, ulcers, tuberculosis, the common cold, the common cough, illness from bacterial or virus infections, alcoholism and a multitude of other complaints and conditions are engramic and respond to processing.

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In Com. Mag. Vol. 1, No. 10, the official publication of the Melbourne HASI, the statement is made that " All that you have read about in scientology and dianetics can be achieved by you with processing from the Hubbard Guidance Centre".

In Com. Mag. of December, 1963, Hubbard writes,

"The psychologist could not change intelligence quotient or personality at will. The Scientologist can. The psychologist could not restore sanity and happiness to the insane. The Scientologist can .... Scientology will inherit the hospitals, the clinics,
the asylums, the halls of learning where humanity was abused. Scientology will inherit the task of sign-posting Man upon a better road. There are only two reasons why this is so: they had their chance and did not do their job; we have our chance and are d
oing ours".

That Hubbard and scientology specifically claim to heal, and attract people in the belief that they do heal, is obvious from HCO Pol. Lr. of the 1st September, AD 12 (1962), entitled "Healing Promotion". That letter reads:

"By healing you can graduate a pc up to clearing interest and thus we have a lower level feeder line, capable of successful accomplishment with normal HCA/HPA training. That programme has the following thought major: Maybe you're not sick. Maybe you're j
ust suppressed. See us and find out.

"The phrasing can be more elegant, the message remains the same.

"Legally, this permits us to heal without engaging in healing as, in actual fact, we address no illnesses and indeed, deny people are ill - they are only suppressed. Sickness occurs, we say, where suppression has been too great. The argument is - have you been sick? Did you go to doctors to be cured? Did they cure it? Then (as they didn't) maybe you're not sick, maybe you're just suppressed. So take some processing and find out. And the person gets well! We use on him the exact button he came to us on. S
o he's never dismayed at any change of tack on our part. Then we interest him in clearing.

"This, I am sure, is the long sought gradient. This, used right, will build our new buildings, use our Academy Graduates and give us a chance to train up auditors to clearing.

"The legal argument is simple, we don't believe in sickness, we do not address illness, we do not diagnose, we believe that freeing the human spirit also incidentally prevents sickness. We are doing prevention. We also find people do not have to be crazy
to be suppressed, that nearly everybody is suppressed. We do send acutely ill people to doctors. We advertise to cure no diseases! That last is important legally. We only infer that people who think they are sick are really not, but only suppressed."

A circular issued by the Melbourne College of Personal Efficiency, the Hawthorn scientology organization, claimed

"Tens of thousands of case histories (reports on patients' individual records) all sworn to (attested before public officials) are in the possession of the organization of scientology .... Scientology in the words of an expert can cure 70 per cent. of Man's illnesses .... It is valid. It has been tested .... Scientology does things for people which have not been done before. It makes them well from illnesses which were once considered hopeless. It increases their intelligence by actual measurement, it changes their competence, and betters their behaviour. In addition to these things it brings them a better understanding of life. One outstanding thing which it does - it alleviates burns received from atomic bombs. Scientology is the only specific cure for atomic bomb radiation flash burns. Scientology processing given to persons burned by radiation can eliminate the majority of difficulty."

HCO Pol. Lr. of the 12th October, 1962, states that the purpose of the Hubbard Guidance Centre is to "do more for people's health and ability than has ever before been possible."

A letter dated the 6th October, 1962, from the Melbourne HASI to a preclear contained a specific offer to treat physical complaints, in the following terms, "If you suffer from physical complaints which have not been cured by usual medical methods--why not call in and let us find out if you are just suppressed? We have special methods of handling such difficulties.

In HCO Pol. Lr. of the 2nd August, 1963, Hubbard wrote,

"Scientology for use in spiritual healing. This is a healing strata .... The target is human illness. We have never entered this field but as we are not thanked for staying out of it, we might as well dominate it. It is a good procurement area."

The claims made for curing are so numerous and consistent that it is impracticable to refer to all of such instances but a selection will indicate the general nature of them.

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In A History of Man, Hubbard wrote: "Cancer has been eradicated by auditing out conception and mitosis". In Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought, Hubbard claimed that "Scientology is the only specific (cure) for radiation (atomic bomb) burns". In Scientology: issue 15-G, Hubbard writes,

"Leukaemia is evidently psychosomatic in origin and at least eight cases of leukaemia had been treated successfully by dianetics after medicine had traditionally given up. The source of leukaemia has been reported to be an engram containing the phrase 'it turns my blood to water'."

The 1957 edition of Hubbard's Scientology: 8-80 contained a new introduction by a "doctor of scientology", stating, "how an auditor trained in this material by the Academy of Scientology can handle with precision even the insane or a few days' old baby"; and the editorial note reads,

"The discovery and isolation of Life Energy in such a form as to revive the dead or dying has been an ambition as old as Man himself. In the last two thousand years a few individuals have claimed the ability without explaining it. With this book, the ability to make one's body old or young at will, the ability to heal the ill without physical contact, the ability to cure the insane and the incapacitated, is set forth for the physician, the layman, the mathematician, and the physicist."

In the early days of scientology in Victoria, advertisements by the HASI appealing for asthma sufferers were published in the press. That scientologists generally believed in the healing powers of scientology is evident from the facts

(a) that many preclears set as their goals, to be obtained through processing, physical health and well being, and

(b) that auditors consistently audited preclears in an effort to improve their health.

One scientology witness who was for a time the director of processing at the HASI believed scientology would aid his deafness. Various scientologists believed that scientology would improve their eyesight or their hearing. Others believed that it would cure stomach pains. One dedicated scientologist did an HPA course in order to be able to audit and, so he believed, cure his father who was suffering from Parkinson's disease. Hubbard wrote in Science of Survival that a process called "straight memory" had alleviated Parkinson's disease. One practising scientologist woman, whose daughter was a highly placed scientologist, believed that had she been processed in scientology for a bad arm, a cancer for which she had received medical attention would not have developed.

Individual scientology witnesses left no doubt that they believe that scientology could cure physical ills. Highly placed scientologists believed that well trained auditors could handle all psychosomatic illnesses and that processing could proof a person against polio, hepatitis, malaria, &c. Mrs Williams believed processing cured a cancer of the abdomen. Gillham thought that processing could cure blood pressure cases. His wife thought that illnesses such as colds, 'flu and heart trouble and some mental disorders could be cured by scientology, and that it was possible to proof against the strain of physical and mental illness.

During 1959-1960, over a period of about five months, one unfortunate man was audited at the Melbourne HASI for more than 200 hours in an endeavour to cure him of cancer from which he was dying and did die. At a time when it was known at the HASI that he had been under medical treatment and was suffering from a malignant growth in his lower abdomen, the HASI quoted him 200 hours' auditing for a stable case gain. He embarked on such a course, and processing ceased only a few weeks before he died, one of the last auditor's reports on his case being that the preclear was about to drop the body. This case is typical of the callous disregard which the scientologist practitioners are trained to have for their preclears. It is a sign of weakness in an auditor to feel pity for a victim, and the auditing processes in this case, as in very many others, were applied quite brutally. During the five months over which this preclear's processing was spread, he had such pitiful goals as "to be certain that I have lost This tumour", "to get rid of this tumour", to "drop off this tumour-cancer-growth", "to make my stomach a bit more comfortable", "to reduce this growth in size", "my health to start to improve, to find the cause of this growth quickly". With these and similar goals, the processes on which he was run included the following and other similar commands, which would be repeated time and time again, for periods of 2 to 3 hours at a sitting, sometimes for six hours a day, and sometimes extending over several days: "What stomach could you confront?", "What stomach would you rather not confront?", "Think of a stomach you could confront, think of a stomach you would rather not confront", "What part of a stomach could you be responsible for?", "What about a victim could you be responsible for?", "What could you admit causing a victim?", "What could you withhold from a victim?". It is morally certain that this preclear was accepted for this processing only after the HASI had consulted Hubbard or Mr. or Mrs. Halperin (or similar name), all of whom were then touring Australia, the Halperins being extremely close associates of Hubbard.

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During this preclear's auditing, he suffered severely from "somatics" or pains in various parts of the body, frequently "doped off" and had hallucinations about murder, rape and other acts of violence, as well as recalls of death and hanging in past lives. At one stage towards the end of this unhappy life, his condition inspired the endorsement of his file: "Good, pc is coming up to apathy", the significance of which is appreciated by reference to the tone scale, apathy being the lowest of the emotions on the scale at 0.05, and only slightly above death.

HCO Bull. of the 24th July, AD 10 (1960), contained "Special Project Australia", which was reprinted in various scientology magazines. In a campaign to publicise scientology and discredit the medical profession, Hubbard wrote,

"This is our offered programme:

"(1) In every letter, communication and broad statement, insert as well the fact that Scientology works. Scientology is the only fully validated science of human behaviour. Scientology is a good, reliable science. Any positive statement. Always add it to anything else we say.

"(2) No longer wait for permission from the government or anyone else to take a positive action to help our fellow man overcome his susceptibility & sickness;

"(3) Let us make of every man, woman and child in Australia a 'disease-proof person' "

"... It is within our power to proof Australia against mental and physical illness... You can advertise all you want to 'eradicates disease proneness', to 'proof Australians against illness' since all law applies to healing sicknesses, and could never be extended to preventing prevention."

And the form of advertisement he recommends is: "Prevent illness. Scientologists are seldom sick. Join a Scientology group and be able".

The HASI repeatedly claims to be the "World's largest organization in the field of mental health". Receipts issued by the Melbourne HASI carry the statement "Scientology proofs people against mental and physical illness".